Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1: うわぁ！変な砂漠に起きた！/ Uwa! Awoke in a Strange Desert

“Pwah!”, Kirby jumped out of the sand that he had been laying in. “Where am I?” Kirby said to himself, as he looked around in an attempt to figure out where he was. Suddenly his eyes widened in realization, “Meta Knight! Dedede!” Kirby looked around franticly in a panic. “Ugh, what is it?” Dedede questioned as he picked himself out of the sand, he then scrunched his face up in confusion, “Where in the name of Nova are we?”, in response Kirby simply just shrugged.

Meta Knight was the last to awaken, slowly standing up, he scanned the area for a second, before confirming there was no threat, and turned to Kirby “Hello Kirby, I don’t mean to sound demanding, but-” Meta Knight was cut of by Dedede’s groaning, “Ughhh, This is why you don’t press buttons on random pieces of machinery you know nothing about.” Dedede scolded Kirby. Kirby just smiled sheepishly, “Sorry.”

“It seems we have been transported to a desert.” Meta Knight said in an attempt to explain their location, that made sense to Kirby, he hasn’t exactly explicitly aimed to visit one, but he knew Popstar had a few deserts, like Sand Canyon. He didn’t, however, recognize this one. “Well which one do you propose this one is? Because I don’t recognize it.” Dedede questioned, taking the words right out of Kirby’s mouth.

Meta Knight looked around a bit before responding, “Perhaps we have not seen this one before?” Meta Knight posed, “Hm. Plausible.” Dedede wasn’t exactly exploring Popstar, trying to map out every area, he was a king after all, he had more important things to do, so that was entirely possible.

“What does that mean?” Kirby asked as he tilted his head in confusion, “Hm? What does what mean?” Dedede inquired, “Pla, pla, plah” Kirby attempted to sound out the word, “Plausible?” Dedede finished for him, “Yeah, that!”, “Oh, it’s a synonym for possible.” Dedede noticed he only further confused Kirby, so he rephrased. “It means the same thing as possible.” He explained more simply, “Oh ok!” Kirby said, now understanding.

“Welp, standing around ain’t gonna do us any good, so I suggest we get a move on” Dedede reasoned, “I agree.” Meta Knight said coolly, “Sounds good to me!” Kirby chirped happily.

“Oh, can I lead? Can I lead?” Kirby asked while bouncing on his heels excitedly.

“Sure squirt.” Dedede responded.

“Yaaaaay!” Kirby yelled happily.

So they had let Kirby lead… They stopped letting him lead after the fifth time they got lost, not that they weren’t already. So now Dedede was leading in front, with Meta Knight behind him, and Kirby in the back.

“We’ve been here for hours!” Kirby whined.

“It’s only been 1 and a half hours Kirby.” Meta Knight stated flatly.

“And if SOMEONE didn’t get lost every 5 minutes, we would be out of here quicker now wouldn’t we?” Dedede said in annoyance.

Kirby pouted in response to this, but didn’t say anything.

“Hey! You three!” A voice said from behind them.

The three turned around to see a Bandit, a Thief, and a Burglar.

“I’m sorry?” Meta Knight asked.

“You better hand over everything you have, or we’ll have to take it by force!” the Bandit yelled.

“…” Dedede was silent for a moment

“DID YOU JUST THREATEN ME!?” Dedede yelled out aghast, How DARE they threaten him, he was the king, did they have a death wish or something!?

Kirby flinched from the sudden outburst, and the Burglar’s confidence faltered.

“Um, M-Maybe?”

‘Isn’t he kinda big for a ladybug’ Kirby thought to himself, sure, he had seen some big bugs before, like Sectonia, but he didn’t remember seeing any ladybugs in specific THAT big.

The Bandit spoke up, “Yeah? What are you gonna do about it?” He asked smugly.

“It seems they are not ones up for reason sire, perhaps we should flee?” Meta Knight noted

“After that!? I don’t think so! They’re gonna have to taste the end of my hammer!” Dedede stated, rather irate.

“Very well.” Meta Knight didn’t exactly think they needed to fight, but they could pose a danger to others, so he drew his Galaxia from it’s sheath, and got into a battle stance.

In terms of numbers, it was a fair fight, three on three, but in all actuality, it wasn’t fair in the slightest. At first the Bandit attempted to tackle Meta Knight, but was swiftly kicked back.

The Burglar followed, though attempting to tackle Dedede, as soon as he got close Dedede brought down his hammer on the Burglar’s head quickly knocking him out.

“Ugh, dat hort.” the Burglar mumbled before falling to the ground.

“Really!?” the Bandit yelled in annoyance.

The Thief flew up to them, then started flapping his wings rapidly, creating a powerful gust. Meta Knight, and Dedede had no problem standing their ground.

“Kya!” Kirby yelped, and held on to Meta Knight’s cape to keep from being blown away.
The Bandit then threw a shuriken at Kirby, luckily Kirby noticed and inhaled the shuriken.

“Did… Did you just eat my-” The Bandit started, though unable to finish as a star catapulted into him.

“GRAH!” He shouted in pain.

“T-This ain’t worth it. Let’s beat it.” the Thief shouted, before proceeding to run of, the Bandit following behind.

“…Well, that was something.” Meta Knight said, a bit confused as to what was going on.

“Ah, that feels better, I really needed to get that out of my system.” Dedede said happily.

“I’m glad we won.” Kirby chirped.

“Yeah, now what were we doing again?” Dedede asked himself, before his face turned to that of irritation.

“Oh yeah, little puffball got us lost.” Dedede said rather annoyed.

“I said I was sorry…” Kirby meekly restated, he was starting to feel a little bad now, he didn’t mean to get everyone lost.

Dedede sighed, “Sorry Kirby, it’s okay, let’s just try and get out of here.”

At this point the Burglar woke.

“Wha? Where am I?” He said in a daze, before looking over at the three.

“Wha? Guys! Wait for me!” He exclaimed as he turned around to flee.

“...Today’s gonna be a long day.” Dedede sighed, as he began to return to getting out of the desert, with Meta Knight, and Kirby in tow.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2: え！？ピンクボールに出会う！/ Eh!? Encounter with the Pink Ball!

“Ugh…” Vi groaned as they walked through the Lost Sands, Team Snakemouth had promised Neo that they would help him investigate the Ancient Castle, with all the Wardens and such, they figured it would probably be best that they accompany him.

“Vi, please don’t complain.” Kabbu said to Vi.

“But it’s hot…” Vi whined.

“If it’s the heat your worried about, we could fix that.” Leif said as he formed an ice ball in his hand, smirking.

Vi turned around, and shot daggers at Leif.

“no.” She deadpanned.

“Suit yourself.” Leif shrugged.

“Team, please calm down, I know it’s hot but we can do this!” Kabbu said, hoping to instill some excitement into the Team (more specifically, Vi).

“Yeah, yeah. I know, you can stop with the motivational speeches now.” Vi smiled, amused at Kabbu’s pep talk.

“Ah y-yes, forgive me.” Kabbu apologized.

Leif chuckled, “No need to apologize Kabbu, we appreciate your enthusiasm.”

“Yeah! And who knows? We might find treasur-” Vi was cut off by screaming in the distance.

“What in the name of Venus was that!?” Kabbu exclaimed, worried for whoever that was.

“We don’t know, perhaps we should check it out.” Leif suggested.

Just then, a group of bandits started running by, “RUN FASTER YOU MORONS!” a Bandit screamed at a Burglar, “I’m trying.” the Burglar huffed, clearly tired by all the running, “I’m pretty sure we lost them guys.” the Thief spoke up.

“Hey you three!” Vi yelled at the trio.

“Guh! Team Snakemouth! Run again!” the Bandit yelled, though he didn’t get very far, as Leif froze them in place, though not all the way so they could talk.

“What are you going on about?” Leif asked the Bandit, confused as to what made them that panicked, Bandits didn’t usually flee from battles.

“Like we’re telling you, Dirtmouth-” The Bandit was cut off by the Beemerang flying into his head.
“OUCH!” The Bandit yelped.

“There’s a lot more where that came from if you don’t start talking.” Vi threatened.

“V-Vi...” Kabbu sighed.

“Ok ok! Just watch where your throwing that!” The Bandit exclaimed.

“Well, get talking.” Leif said.

“Ok, so it was a few minutes ago, we were out looking for some peeps to steal from...”

Vi looked unconvinced “Really? A gumball ate your sharp pointy thing-”

“Shuriken” the Bandit corrected.

“Yeah, whatever, ate your sharp pointy thing, then spat a star at you? That was the best thing you could come up with? Lame.” Vi got ready to throw her Beemerang at him.

Leif nodded, “Agreed, We think this all sounds a little far-fetched.”

“W-We’re not lying! They’re that way! You can check if you want!” the Burglar tried to defend.

“Team, perhaps we should check to see if they’re telling the truth, it couldn’t hurt.” Kabbu reasoned.

“Ugh! Fine! But when we find out they’re lying, I’m beating them up!” Vi exclaimed, she swung her Beemerang around for emphasis.

“Fine by us.” Leif said, freezing the bandits to make sure they stay in place.

“Alright then! Onward!” Kabbu exclaimed.

They trekked to where the Burglar had pointed them to, luckily for them, it was the direction they needed to head in anyways, so they walked about searching for what the Bandit had described, a group of three, a big, blue one, wearing red garbs, and wielding a big hammer, a smaller blue one, who had his face covered by a mask, and held a golden sword with a red gem in the handle, and the smallest, a pink gumball. Leif then stopped in his tracks, causing Vi to bump into him, annoying her.

“Hey! What’s the idea!” Vi yelled at Leif.

“Shh, we hear something.” Leif explained.

The Team fell silent as they listened.

“I’m hungry…” Kirby whined.

“You’re always hungry! Now shut your trap!” King Dedede said in annoyance, boy, he hoped Bandana Waddle Dee was doing a good job holding the fort back home.

“Um, excuse me?” Kabbu said.

The trio turned around to see Team Snakemouth.

Dedede glared at them, “Your not here to attack us, are you?”

“You bet, get ready to taste my Beemer-”

SHWING!

Vi’s mouth was now covered in ice, she started making angry muffled sounds at Leif, who seemed to ignore it.

“Sorry ‘bout her, ah, no.” Leif explained.

“Hmm… Right.” Dedede said with apprehension.

“Forgive us, allow us to properly introduce ourselves. I am Kabbu, that moth there is Leif, and the bee is Vi.” Kabbu introduced his team.

“Well, it’s nice to see that some people have common sense around here, pleased to meet you Kabbu.” Meta Knight said, glad something wasn’t instantly trying to kill them.

“The pleasure’s all mine.” Kabbu replied humbly.

“Ah, guess it’s only fair to introduce ourselves as well, I’m the great King Dedede, this here is Meta Knight, my finest guard, and Kirby.” Dedede introduced his friends.

Vi finally got all the ice off her mouth by hitting it with her Beemerang.

“Wait, your a King!” Vi exclaimed.

“Yep, pretty neat huh?” Dedede beamed.

“A-Are you sure you should be traveling around here? The Lost Sands is known to have many bandits.” Kabbu asked.

“Well, it’s not exactly by choice.” Dedede said, glaring at Kirby, who shrunk under his gaze.

“I see, well, we would be happy to escort you to the Ant Kingdom, it seems the desert isn’t exactly where you planned to be spending your day.” Kabbu said, happy to help those in need.

‘Ant Kingdom?’ Kirby thought, tilting his head. Dedede just looked at him, and shrugged, as if to say ‘Just go with it.’

“Before we go, one question.” Leif stated.

“Fire away!” Dedede said.

“What kind of bugs are you? doesn’t look like your from around here.” Leif asked.

“We’re not bugs.” Dedede stated flatly. ‘I guess the inhabitants of this land are all bugs, who would’ve thought!’ He mused to himself, before his eyes widened, ‘Wait’ he realized something.

“Where did you say we were?” Dedede asked, annoyance rising in his voice.

“Lost Sands.” Leif stated.

“Yeah why?” Vi was confused, did he hit his head too hard or something?

“And the Lost Sands are a part of?” Dedede asked, worried about the answer.

“Bugaria.” Kabbu stated. ‘Guess they really got lost.’ He thought to himself.

A low growl came from Dedede, and he pinched the bridge of his nose, or beak, whatever. ‘Yep’ He thought, they weren’t on Popstar… were they?

“Please excuse us for a second.” Dedede said as he pulled Meta Knight, and Kirby behind a rock.

“...They’re weird.” Vi said.

“...yeah.” Leif replied.

Yelling could be heard from behind the rock.

“You think they’ll be ok?” Kabbu asked, worried.

“Oh yeah, seems they’ll be just fine.” Leif said with a smirk.

Welp. Took awhile, but they finally got to the Ant Kingdom. Team Snakemouth decided to take the three strangers to Queen Elizant II, perhaps she would have some idea of what’s going on.

“Hey, pretty nice place here.” Dedede said, looking around the Ant Kingdom.

“Yep. All kinds of bugs come to visit. Never too cold, or too hot.” Kabbu said with enthusiasm.

“I can see why.” Meta Knight said.

“Can we get food no- OW!” Kirby exclaimed, being cutoff by Dedede hitting his head with his hammer.

“Shut it, you can get food after we see the queen.” Dedede said irritated. Don’t get him wrong, he loved Kirby, with the occasional prank here and there, but sometimes he could be a little annoying to deal with.
“So… where do you guys come from any ways.” Vi asked, curious as to how they got here.

“Dreamland, real nice place, should visit sometime.” Dedede said, oh how he missed Dreamland already.

“With a name like that, seems like it be hard for it to seem any less than nice.” Leif said.

“If you don’t mind me asking, how’d you end up here?” Kabbu asked.

“Ah yes, well it was a few hours ago...”

Chapter Text

Chapter 3: 何？カービィにどこいるんだ！？/ What? Where’s Kirby!?

“Ugh… is everyone ok?” Susie asked as she picked herself up from the ground.

“As fine as one can be after being blinded, and blown up.” Magolor said dusting himself off.

The room they were in was a mess, shards of glass littered the floor, ash was everywhere, and a large machine in the center of the room was broken, with exposed wires sticking out.

Taranza coughed due to the smoke lining the ceiling. “What happened?” He asked, very much not pleased about all the smoke.

“It, uh, seems our machine malfunctioned.” Susie said.

“Or it blew a gasket, sheesh! How much power does it need anyway.” Magolor said, while picking some stuff up, before something clicked in his head.

“It shouldn’t need THAT much power, unless it’s transporting something over a large distance.” Susie explained.

“Uh Guys…” Magolor said, concern showing in his voice

“Well something obviously went wrong.” Taranza said, annoyed at Susie.

“Guys…”

“Well, how am I supposed to know what went wrong!”

“Guys…”

“You’re the one who built it!”

“GUYS!”

Susie, and Taranza looked over at Magolor. “What?” Susie asked irritated.

“Where’s Kirby?” Magolor asked in concern.

“…” Susie was silent as she looked around.

“Um, they were here a moment ago.” She said.

“Oh great.” Taranza said, as he aided in looking around.

“Come to think of it, I don’t see Meta Knight, or King Dedede either.” Magolor pointed out.

“Well that’s not good.” Susie said.

“Remind me why we had to do this again.” Before Taranza’s question could be answered, the door to their room slowly opened.

“I-Is everything ok? I heard an e-explosion. What happ-” Queen Ripple suddenly was given a face full of smoke, causing her to cough. “W-What h-happened.” She managed to get out between coughs.

“Oh our machine blew up, no biggie.” Magolor said rather nonchalantly.

“Ah, I-I see.” Queen Ripple said.

“Say, where d-did Kirby and his friends go?” She asked after looking around some.

“Oh, they went missing.” Magolor shrugged.

“O-oh, ok.” She said.

“Well that went better than expected-” Magolor started.

“Wait, WHAT!?” Queen Ripple yelped, as she started panicking.

“…Guess I spoke too soon.” Magolor said.

“Calm down Queen, I’m sure they didn’t go anywhere too far.” Susie said trying to calm the Queen down, though these efforts were fruitless as she was too busy panicking.

“D-D-Do you t-think they’re ok!? What if they got k-k-kidnapped by s-someone, o-or, AH!” Queen Ripple yelped as she slipped and fell on her rear, into some sort of clear orange-ish liquid. She looked at her hand for a bit before licking the the substance.

“DON’T LICK RANDOM SUBSTANCES IN A LAB YOU DOLT!” Susie screamed at the Queen.

“It tastes sweet, what is it?” Queen Ripple asked.

“Oh, some fast-acting poison, real neat, can kill you in about five minutes.” Magolor answered.

“W-W-What!” Queen Ripple yelped, her eyes going big, as her body started trembling in fear.

“Nah, I’m just messing with you. It’s apple juice. Pfft, you should have seen your face.” Magolor said, rather amused at the queen’s reaction.

Queen Ripple pouted in annoyance. “I-It’s not f-funny, I w-was really s-s-scared.” She said, her voice still trembling.

“Uh, guys, Kirby, remember.” Taranza said, trying to remind them what they were doing before.

“Oh right.” Susie said. “Anyhow, I suppose first stop should be Dedede’s Castle, they could’ve possibly just went there, knowing Kirby that seems like one of the first places he would try to go.”

“R-Right, I suppose I’ll tag along, I f-feel partly r-responsible for all this.” Queen Ripple said.

“Right, first stop, Dedede’s Castle!” Magolor said enthusiastically.

Bandana Waddle Dee was walking around the perimeter of the castle.

‘I wonder what Dedede’s doing’ He thought to himself, Dedede said that he was going to Ripple Star because Susie wanted to show him something, until he got back, Bandana was in charge.

“I guess I’ll go see what Waddle Doo’s ‘dooing’” He chuckled at his own joke.”Oh hey.” He noticed Susie, Taranza, Magolor, and Queen Ripple heading towards the castle.

“Hey Guys!” He yelled as he ran toward them.

“Hey Bandana!” Magolor waved.

“Sup.” Taranza said.

“Hi.” Susie said.

“Hello.” Queen Ripple greeted.

“Hello Magolor, Hello Taranza, Hello Susie, Greetings your Majesty.” Bandana replied back, bowing when he addressed the queen. Queen Ripple blushed at the gesture. “T-Thank you.” she thanked shyly. “What brings you all here?” Bandana asked, happy to see his friends.

“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know where Kirby, Meta Knight, or Dedede is would you?” Susie asked.

“No… They were with you weren’t they?” Bandana said, rather confused.

“Well, we might have had a teeny mix-up, and we might not know their, exact, location.” Taranza said.

“His sire is missing!?” Bandana exclaimed. He started running, panicked, in circles.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Magolor said.

“B-But don’t worry! We’ll find him, and Kirby, and Meta Knight too.” Queen Ripple said, hoping to calm him down, though, if she was being honest, she didn’t even know if she believed herself.

“O-Ok.” Bandana said, calming down some. “Oh! But I must inform the others, Waddle Doo!” Bandana Waddle Dee sped off towards the castle.

“Welp, guess he ain’t here.” Magolor said.

“T-Then w-where could t-t-they be!?” Queen Ripple said as she started panicking again.

“There are like, four entire planets other than Popstar, and Ripple Star, there’s quite a few places.” Magolor deadpanned.

“O-Oh, right.” She said, slightly embarrassed by her behavior.

“Well we could go check Perished Star I suppose.” Susie said.

Queen Ripple shuddered, “That place sounds scary…” she said, slightly worried about the state of the planet. She had heard of the planet, obviously, but has never actually been there.

“Yeah, no place called Perished Star can be a fun place.” Taranza pointed out.

“Hey, I mean, pack a beach towel, one of those big umbrellas, and a bathing suit, and you’ve pretty much got a beach vacation, just minus the ocean.” Magolor said. Susie and Taranza glared at Magolor, while Queen Ripple giggled a bit.

“ I guess that’s one way to look at it.” Queen Ripple said, amused by Magolor’s optimism.

“...Anyhow, how are we gonna get there? Because I don’t want to be crammed into one of those little saucer things” Taranza asked.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got!” Magolor said as he pressed a button.

Suddenly a large shadow was cast over them. “What the?” Susie said confused. Everyone looked up to see the Lor Starcutter.

“Wow… That’s pretty…” Queen Ripple said, her eyes sparkling.

“Yep! She’s a beauty. Alright, everyone on board!” Magolor exclaimed, boarding the ship.

Everyone else boarded, and they were soon on their way to Ripple Star...